Sports Cards and Memories: More Chrome Breaks: 7 Value Packs, 2 Hobby Boxes and 2 Jumbo Boxes

So this is going to be the nerve wrecking part of the Chrome break as I KNOW how BAD hobby boxes have been this year. Just brutal. Barely any color parallels, super weak rookie auto checklist etc. All it takes is one though to make it successful but I know fully well that this could be a bloodbath of epic proportions. First off, I'm going to start off with 7 Value Packs that I found at Wal Mart. The Wal Mart value packs have 5 pink refractors unlike the 3 per value pack at Target. I figured I did pretty good with the Target ones, that I'd try out the Wal Mart ones to see how my luck was with these. Here's what I got

Wal Mart Value Packs

Notable Base Rookies
Gleyber Torres
Ronald Acuna Jr.
Victor Robles
Walker Buehler

Refractor
Mike Trout
Jose Quintana
Austin Hays
Michael Fulmer
Tim Beckham
Chris Davis
Tomas Nido

Topps 35th Anniversary
Didi Gregorious
Jake Lamb
Giancarlo Stanton
Mookie Betts
Clint Frazier
Rhys Hoskins
Mike Trout
Paul Goldschmidt

Freshman Flash
Ozzie Albies
Willie Calhoun

Superstar Sensations
Corey Seager

Future Stars
Andrew Benintendi
Keon Broxton

Prism Refractor
Jay Bruce
Greg Allen

Pink Refractor
Walker Buehler
Victor Robles
Kendrys Morales (x2)
Yuli Gurriel (x2)
Nick Williams (x2)
Edwin Diaz (x2)
Craig Kimbrel (x2)
Josh Bell
Lucas Giolito
Brian Anderson
Eugenio Suarez
Greg Bird
Joey Gallo
Richard Urena
Tomas Nido
Lewis Brinson
Justin Verlander
Austin Hays
David Robertson
Tyler O'Neill
Max Kepler
Ender Inciarte
Andrew Miller
Adam Jones
Sandy Alcantara
Luis Severino
Matt Carpenter
Trea Turner
Cole Hamels
Brett Gardner

Overall Thoughts: Welp..you can look at this two ways...an ominous start of things to do or "it can only get better from here". That was not very good at all. The only decent pink refractors I pulled where the Buehler and Robles pinks. I did get additional Gleyber and Acuna base rookies but overall pretty brutal break. Ok Hobby...please please don't fail me!

Box 1
Notable Base Rookies
Shohei Ohtani
Rafael Devers
Gleyber Torres
Walker Buehler
Victor Robles
Alex Verdugo

Topps 35th Anniversary
Mike Trout
Dominic Smith
Ian Happ
Justin Turner

Future Stars
Franklin Barreto
Ian Happ
Joe Jimenez

Superstar Sensations
Anthony Rizzo

Freshman Flash
Austin Hays
Victor Robles

Refractors
Miguel Gomez
Lewis Brinson
Luis Severino
Brian Anderson
Walker Buehler
Matt Carpenter
Trea Turner
Victor Robles

Prism Refractors
Yoan Moncada
Andrew McCutchen
Stephen Strasburg
Scott Kingery

Photo Variation
Andrew Benintendi

Gold Refractors
Scott Kingery (#7/50)

Chrome Rookie Autographs
Parker Bridwell
Keury Mella
Chance Sisco (Redemption)

Notable Rookies Ronald Acuna Jr.
Ozzie Albies

Topps 35th Anniversary
Rafael Devers
Manny Machado
Kris Bryant
Clint Frazier

Future Stars
Luke Weaver
Alex Bregman
Jacob Faria

Superstar Sensations
Noah Syndergaard

Freshman Flash
Shohei Ohtani
Francisco Mejia

Refractors
Gleyber Torres
Khris Davis
Alex Reyes
Aaron Altherr
Matt Chapman
Ryan Braun
Noah Syndergaard
Cody Allen

Prism Refractors
Corey Kluber
Max Scherzer
Marcell Ozuna
Domingo Santana

Negative Refractor
Tyler Mahle

Purple Refractor
Marcell Ozuna (#283/299)

Chrome Rookie Autographs
Breyvic Valera

Chrome Rookie Autographs Purple
Brandon Woodruff (#228/250)

Box 1
Notable Base Rookies
Ronald Acuna Jr.
Ozzie Albies
Clint Frazier
Rhys Hoskins

Topps 35th Anniversary
Paul Goldschmidt
Clayton Kershaw
Carlos Correa
Rhys Hoskins
Giancarlo Stanton
Nick Williams

Future Stars
Aaron Judge
Jordan Montgomery
Lewis Brinson
Christian Arroyo

Freshman Flash
Nick Williams
Austin Hays
J.P Crawford

Superstar Sensations
Cody Bellinger
Corey Seager

Refractors
Ronald Acuna Jr.
Amed Rosario
Jameson Tallion
Jacob Faria
Paul Blackburn
Harrison Bader
Eugenio Suarez
Joey Gallo
Greg Allen
Greg Bird
Parker Bridwell
Justin Verlander

Prism Refractors
Rhys Hoskins
Kenta Maeda
Brandon Woodruff
Josh Donaldson
Trey Mancini
Jen-Ho Tseng

Negative Refractor
Andrew Stevenson

Green Wave Refractor
Lucas Giolito (#7/99)

Chrome Rookie Autographs
Tyler Wade
Miguel Gomez
Dustin Fowler
Dillon Peters
Garrett Cooper

Chrome Rookie Autograph Refractors
Felix Jorge (#317/499)

Box 2
Notable Base Rookies
Rhys Hoskins
Clint Frazier
Shohei Ohtani
Rafael Devers
Gleyber Torres
Walker Buehler
Victor Robles

Topps 35th Anniversary
Shohei Ohtani
Carlos Correa
Clayton Kershaw
Giancarlo Stanton
Paul Goldschmidt
Rhys Hoskins

Freshman Flash
Rafael Devers
Harrison Bader
Clint Frazier

Future Stars

Paul DeJong
Trey Mancini
Keon Broxton
Cody Bellinger

Superstar Sensations
Aaron Judge
Anthony Rizzo

Refractors
Jackson Stephens
Eric Thames
German Marquez
Tyler Wade
Tyler Mahle
Luis Castillo
Edwin Diaz
Kenta Maeda
Nick Williams
Josh Donaldson
Victor Arano
Jon Lester

Prism Refractors
Rafael Devers
Luke Weaver
Robinson Cano
Nicky Delmonico
Starlin Castro
Dustin Fowler

Negative Refractors
Miguel Gomez

Purple Refractors
Lucas Giolito (#59/299)

Green Wave Refractors
Cody Bellinger (#89/99)

Chrome Rookie Autographs
Max Fried
Adrian Sanchez
Tyler Mahle

Chrome Rookie Autographs Refractors
Victor Arano (#233/499)

Chrome Rookie Autographs Refractors Gold Wave
Nicky Delmonico Redemption

Overall Thoughts: Yeah..that was brutal overall and it confirms what many people have said about Topps Chrome this year. It's just a super terrible break for the most part. The problem is..there are just wayyyyyy to many BAD rookies. Seems like more than 75% of the set is comprised of auto rookies that sell for $1-$3 at most. And with prices what they are..it's just unbelievably hard to come ahead in this. Also the severe lack of color per box..(the most I got, even in Jumbo boxes was 2 color parallels) hurts this product immensely. Even if you DO hit color..the set is so large it has to be the RIGHT player. I got semi excited with the redemptions but they of course were underwhelming. Nicky Delmonico, Brandon Woodruff, and Dustin Fowler follow me EVERY BREAK..so naturally I pull all 3. If you really wanna break this product I would definitely stick to retail to get your fix. You might not get guaranteed autos but honestly it's probably for the best considering who you'll probably pull.

Success/Failure?- Here's the thing though..as BAD as it was (and it was BAD) it still easily surpassed the 50% mark of ROI just by sheer volume of the cards. Since I tried to account for any superstar insert card and there presumed value, all those little cards end up adding up at the end. When you have multiple base rookies and inserts of Acuna, Albies, Hoskins, Ohtani etc..they're all worth a little something so as bad as it looks..I estimate the value of this break is about 66% of what I spent overall. So in that regards, it passes, but it's STILL a horrid break and would stay away from Hobby stuff of this until it gets discounted down to a respectable price.

Pics of the hits